Best online estate agent

[CHIEF]

My home has currently been on the market for 5 months now and whilst i understand the market is pretty crap at the moment i've had one viewing in 5 months.

My current estate agent has been to be frank pretty poor, not proactive at all, not returning calls etc.

Anyway another estate agent called me and they are pretty good but want an extra 1000 quid to sell my home, after chatting to them I asked what could they actually offer me over my current estate agent or even an online estate agent, They admitted that over 95% of their sales come from people looking online and very few come from people walking into the office or viewing in the local Property News, So if this is the case would I be better going to a reputable online estate agents and with the money i save knock this off the current value of my house to stimulate a bit of interest or would I just be better staying put?

If going to an online agent has anyone got any recommendations?

Cheers.

[Bluebarge]

CHIEF said:

My home has currently been on the market for 5 months now and whilst i understand the market is pretty crap at the moment i've had one viewing in 5 months.

My current estate agent has been to be frank pretty poor, not proactive at all, not returning calls etc.

Anyway another estate agent called me and they are pretty good but want an extra 1000 quid to sell my home, after chatting to them I asked what could they actually offer me over my current estate agent or even an online estate agent, They admitted that over 95% of their sales come from people looking online and very few come from people walking into the office or viewing in the local Property News, So if this is the case would I be better going to a reputable online estate agents and with the money i save knock this off the current value of my house to stimulate a bit of interest or would I just be better staying put?

If going to an online agent has anyone got any recommendations?

Cheers.

I would much prefer to use a local agent who knows the area, the prices achieved and achievable, and has a contact list of people who have registered an interest. A "national" online agent will just look on Zoopla and guess the price, or just stick on whatever price you've thought of, which won't ge you a sale.

Choose a local agent and give them a time limited contract, you could also incentivise them by giving them an extra 0.5% if they achieve x value in the sale price.

[scooters]

I used turtlehomes to sell my property
. Maybe worth a look?

[anonymous-user]

When I come to sell my house i will not be using a local estate agent.
An on-line solution for say £600 seems a much better idea.

As you say:
- 95% of people look for houses on-line now.
- Estate agents can often be a barrier to a sale rather than a conduit.
- Estate agents often lie about things.
- Estate agents will not have the same sense of urgency and importance as you will.
- Who knows how to best sell your home, someone who's lived there for X number of years and knows all the best qualities of a house, or some smarmy, cheap suited mini driving bullstter.
- Who would you trust to make sure a sale goes through (yourself or above said estate agent type).

A friend of mine has recently had a nightmare with their estate agent(s). Lying about prospects, not checking paperwork or mortgage offers etc. He ended up sacking two sets of agents and selling himself in the end because they just couldn't be trusted / were incompetent.

[ARH]

When I was houses hunting I looked at a few house for sale with online agents. The vendors were not happy with the service provided and were all waiting for the contract to end so they could go with a local agent. this was 5 houses. The online agents had lowered the sale prices to attract viewings which the vendors were not happy with. This of cause may have been just the properties I viewed and not all online agents are like this. I would say go with the other local agent but get them to match the price of the first one.

[danyeates]

These maybe? http://housenetwork.co.uk/

[matc]

CHIEF said:

My home has currently been on the market for 5 months now and whilst i understand the market is pretty crap at the moment i've had one viewing in 5 months.

My current estate agent has been to be frank pretty poor, not proactive at all, not returning calls etc.

Anyway another estate agent called me and they are pretty good but want an extra 1000 quid to sell my home, after chatting to them I asked what could they actually offer me over my current estate agent or even an online estate agent, They admitted that over 95% of their sales come from people looking online and very few come from people walking into the office or viewing in the local Property News, So if this is the case would I be better going to a reputable online estate agents and with the money i save knock this off the current value of my house to stimulate a bit of interest or would I just be better staying put?

If going to an online agent has anyone got any recommendations?

Cheers.

Why not say you'll pay them the extra £1k if they get you an agreed price within 6 weeks of putting it on with them?

Always worth using this with local estate agents too, as like you've expreinced most of them are crap to say the least.

My OH just sold her flat within a week after changing agents, turns out the buyer had been trying to arrange a viewing with the previous agents but never had a response!!

[anonymous-user]

ARH said:

The online agents had lowered the sale prices to attract viewings which the vendors were not happy with.

Are you sure?? If someone is selling something on your behalf then they use the valuation they were given by the vendor.
An on-line agent would have no authority to set a price on an asset they didn't own !

[scenario8]

To muddy the waters a little more; even in 2012 way less than half our sales can trace their original introduction to the property to the internet. That's a sample size in the mid four figures in the SE by the way.

The net is a massive tool, huge, but do not believe that it is the answer to everything.

There is something either very unusual about your property or one or many other issues are affecting your marketing if you have had one viewing in five months. That is woeful. Where are you? Any chance of a rightmove link?

Regardless, best of luck with however you wish to pursue a sale.

[anonymous-user]

scenario8 said:

To muddy the waters a little more; even in 2012 way less than half our sales can trace their original introduction to the property to the internet.

Who is "our"?

Why would anyone first go to 5-10 local estate agents shops rather than simply hop on line and have all information available at their fingertips in seconds?

Estate agents will all be out of business in the next 5-10 years.
They offer crap service at ridiculous prices and with modern technology are now pretty much redundant.

[scenario8]

Bandit said:

Who is "our"?

Why would anyone first go to 5-10 local estate agents shops rather than simply hop on line and have all information available at their fingertips in seconds?

Estate agents will all be out of business in the next 5-10 years.
They offer crap service at ridiculous prices and with modern technology are now pretty much redundant.

"We" are the company I work for. I'm not going to ame names but as alluded to in the post you part quoted it's a fairly sizeable operation.

Why would less than half our sales originate from an internet based introduction? Because we work very hard to get interested parties registered with us and retain their interest. You might be surprised how long it can take to get a listing online, how infrequently "most" potential purchasers review online submissions and how frequently those buyers decline to follow up something they saw online or indeed how frequently they don't notice something online they may well have been interested in. Getting people to view a property requires effort and often a photo on the internet isn't enough. Very often a great deal of interest is generated on a property before anything substantial appears online.

There are frequent discussions on these fora around the imminent death of the high street model of agency or atleast end up with posts stating that. I'm not going to go to the lengths to explain why I believe that is unlikely (within the time frame you mention) other than to say I've been told the industry will disappear within five years for at least a decade and a half. In that period many agencies have closed (although I contend most of that would be due to the economic downturn) and many have opened. The company I work for has grown substantially year on year despite being relatively expensive and continuing to operate a model reliant on expensive bricks and mortar high street offices. Things will continue to change, of course, and perhaps many agencies will cease trading but there will still be a lot of very expensive-to-run bricks and mortar offices for some time to come yet.

Apologies that you evidently have had terrible experiences from estate agents and best of luck with your future sales and purchases using online only operations.

[anonymous-user]

scenario8 said:

"We" are the company I work for. I'm not going to ame names but as alluded to in the post you part quoted it's a fairly sizeable operation.

Why would less than half our sales originate from an internet based introduction? Because we work very hard to get interested parties registered with us and retain their interest. You might be surprised how long it can take to get a listing online, how infrequently "most" potential purchasers review online submissions and how frequently those buyers decline to follow up something they saw online or indeed how frequently they don't notice something online they may well have been interested in. Getting people to view a property requires effort and often a photo on the internet isn't enough. Very often a great deal of interest is generated on a property before anything substantial appears online.

There are frequent discussions on these fora around the imminent death of the high street model of agency or atleast end up with posts stating that. I'm not going to go to the lengths to explain why I believe that is unlikely (within the time frame you mention) other than to say I've been told the industry will disappear within five years for at least a decade and a half. In that period many agencies have closed (although I contend most of that would be due to the economic downturn) and many have opened. The company I work for has grown substantially year on year despite being relatively expensive and continuing to operate a model reliant on expensive bricks and mortar high street offices. Things will continue to change, of course, and perhaps many agencies will cease trading but there will still be a lot of very expensive-to-run bricks and mortar offices for some time to come yet.

Apologies that you evidently have had terrible experiences from estate agents and best of luck with your future sales and purchases using online only operations.

None of what you have written makes any sense,
If someone wants to move they need to look for somewhere to move to. If they need enticing then they probably aren't going to move.

Let assume someone wants to move - what is the process?
You identify the area you want to move to and how much you can afford to spend.
These things do not require estate agents as everything you need is available on the Internet.

Now let's assume someone finds a few properties they are interested in. Why would anyone want to approach a middle man when they can phone the vendor direct. Why would anyone want secondhand information when they can have it direct from someone more motivated and knowledgable about the item for sale?

The old model of estate agents is well and truly finished. It's expensive, unnecessary and outdated.
A vendor can find out with a good degree of confidence what their house is worth.
They can reach many thousands more potential purchasers by using the Internet as opposed to a local estate agent.

I have no idea why such a good proportion of your custom originates from direct contact but you can be sure that in this technology savvy era, it's not going to stay this way for long.

I'm not wishing you misfortune or anything, I just can't see this business model working for much longer.

[CHIEF]

I've bunged the agent an email outlining my concerns as to why I've had only one viewing.

My house was originally valued at between £144000 and £150000 and I placed it on at £142950 then reduced it to £139950 after 3 months.

(before all you southern softies all fall about laughing, yes I'm from oop north and it's a 3 bed semi, large 4 car drive and a garage, in a nice part of town.)

I assumed by putting it on at below what it was valued by 3 local agents
might stimulate interest and then reducing it further might kick start it. The thing is I'm starting to question the proactivness of the agent.

If all they doing is popping it online then I'm questioning would it be better going with a reputable online agent saving myself 2k and then knocking that 2k off the house to make it more attractive to buyers.

This is the first house that I bought at 23 years of age and I've been in it 15 years now so because this is the first house I've sold I'm unfamiliar with
how estate agents market their properties

[scenario8]

I appreciate the market in "the North" is very different to that where I work but as stated above, that level of response over that period of time is truly remarkable. Can you tell us if the broader market is as sluggish? Have similar properties in the town also had such woeful results? Do you know of any sales?

What was it that your chosen agent offered you that led to your decision to use them? Are they a local independent/larger independent/regional or national chain...?

If only out of interest a righmove link would be appreciated.

From the information you've already supplied I'm surprised you haven't already changed agencies.

[CHIEF]

The area is bad but I'm at a loss as to why it's so bad. There are between 15-18 houses up for sale and have been for a while 3 have sold in the last 3 months. 1 at auction and a town house sold for 96k although it needs a lot of work. On my street only one house has sold in 6 months and there must be 8 up for sale.

I know that certain people in the area hold concerns with regards to a new academy that is currently being built
and some accusations of social engineering are being thrown about.

This academy is something that hasn't or doesn't concern me yet if it's effecting my property then any outside influence I'm right to be concerned

My sister is moving to Bramhall in Cheshire and the market down that neck of the woods is chugging along quite nicely.

[scenario8]

It sounds to me that your area is very much against you, then. In honestly if there are that many houses for sale and the two you mention (presumably) sold for values much lower than your "valuations" and your own expectation then <shudder> maybe the whole area is in denial about values. If people really and genuinely want to sell then they will have to accept values the market is prepared to pay. However, throughout this ongoing downturn much of the UK is not genuinely interested in selling at a price acceptable to the market (for a variety of reasons) and so has to brace itself for the long slog.

(See average Rightmove asking prices versus land Registry sold prices data - and a mutlitude of threads on these fora (including the ongoing Price Crash Volume 3 thread)).

Every now and then you'll get an exception but from what you describe it sounds like next to nothing is happening in your area at present.

edited to add; sorry that might have sounded terribly pessimistic. Of course there are always things that can be done to try to reinvigorate your own marketing; a new agent for whom the property isn't that tired old listing with the miserable vendor, a thorough revamp/redecorate/redress of your home, new photos (decent professional ones), and so on.

Edited by scenario8 on Saturday 9th June 14:53

[LFB531]

Bandit said:

I'm not wishing you misfortune or anything, I just can't see this business model working for much longer.

Without wishing to hijack to OP's thread.....but I saw this and it made me smile.

I've only been an agent for 30 years so maybe I know nothing but I agree totally with your summary providing;

1. You manage to persuade people to stop letting emotions get involved with buying a house.
2. You insist on the buyer and seller making a commitment within 7 days
3. You remove EVERY bit of red tape involved in the process

After you've dealt with that, no problem, property sales sorted and it could all be done on-line. Until that time arrives, for every easy sale, a good agent will be keeping at least five others together with a lot of brow mopping and ego soothing along the way. We're not always good at what we do, but we're only paid on results.

Apologies again OP, good luck with whatever you decide to do.

[CHIEF]

LFB531 said:

Without wishing to hijack to OP's thread.....but I saw this and it made me smile.

I've only been an agent for 30 years so maybe I know nothing but I agree totally with your summary providing;

1. You manage to persuade people to stop letting emotions get involved with buying a house.
2. You insist on the buyer and seller making a commitment within 7 days
3. You remove EVERY bit of red tape involved in the process

After you've dealt with that, no problem, property sales sorted and it could all be done on-line. Until that time arrives, for every easy sale, a good agent will be keeping at least five others together with a lot of brow mopping and ego soothing along the way. We're not always good at what we do, but we're only paid on results.

Apologies again OP, good luck with whatever you decide to do.

You dont need to apologise mate.

I sent the agent a pleasant if straight to the point email on Friday. If they fail to respond then I will take it off them and consider the online route or another agent who will be a bit more proactive.

[anonymous-user]

LFB531 said:

I've only been an agent for 30 years so maybe I know nothing but I agree totally with your summary providing;

1. You manage to persuade people to stop letting emotions get involved with buying a house.
2. You insist on the buyer and seller making a commitment within 7 days
3. You remove EVERY bit of red tape involved in the process

Can you provide any information on what each of the 3 points actually entails?
It looks like common sense, good communication and a little intelligence are whats needed - so again, why would you need an estate agent?

What makes me smile is estate agents thinking they are doing something skilled/complicated for the extortionate fees they charge.

[Hoonigan]

danyeates said:

These maybe? http://housenetwork.co.uk/

100% these, we used them to sell my Dads house went faultlessly top service and great promotion through Rightmove etc... sold within a couple of weeks too.

Paul